No matter what industry you are in, customers choose to do business with you based on what they truly want from your company and the experiences they have with you. We all know people these days are looking for the lowest price. But if the best deal comes at the expense of not honoring the brand promises you make, people won’t continue to invest in your brand, nor will they refer their friends to help you grow your business.

For me, this reality has never rang as true as it did after I tried to buy new technology from my business cell phone provider. I really wanted the newest model that recently came out with all its bells and whistles.
Given that this provider has gone out of its way to tell me---via paper bills, online, and through CEO messages---that they want me to have “simply everything” I need, as well as rewards for being a loyal customer, I had high hopes for an easy transaction. Imagine how shocked I was when the salesperson in the store told me that I couldn’t put the new phone on my existing business account. “If you really want it,” he said, “you’d have to open up a separate account and pay more than your current arrangement.” In response, I calmly pointed out the thousands of dollars I spend with the company each month, as well as my willingness to upgrade many of my employees to the latest technology if we liked the first purchase. The current and potential revenue didn’t matter to him as he replied: “I’m sorry sir, I can’t help you.”

 Those final words that ended our interaction also ended my 10-year loyalty to the provider. I’m sure missing my money each month might sting, but not as much as the lasting impact of missing what matters most to customers.

My provider could have closed the gap between who they say they are with what I (and I'm sure many others) actually experienced by training employees to deliver on customer needs and translating how employees can actually “do” the promises the company makes.

In this age of uncertainty, I hope you’ll never forget the importance of positioning employees to behave in ways that add value to every interaction and experience your company has with customers. These employee behaviors will lead to consistent experiences that will go far in providing stability to your business, and to helping your brand differentiate and rise to the top.